The Fermi Paradox and Time Travel

Time travel is something that has always intrigued mankind. Is it possible? Will it ever be done? And what are the implications of time travel? These are all prevalent questions which are part of a sensitive subject area. There have been numerous films and TV episodes about time travel. Most predict it is impossible – despite the incredible technological advancements seen in recent times. As for the Fermi Paradox – this is something that when applied to the topic of time travel, would cast more questions on this intriguing subject. Read on to find out more.

Could Time Travel ever be possible?

So to begin with, what is the Fermi paradox? The paradox is named after Enrico Fermi. To take things right back, a paradox is often a statement or proposition that despite being logically impossible, could be true. This particular paradox is concerned with the contradiction between a lack of extra-terrestrial evidence and high probability estimates. Fermi proposed several points which have generally been confirmed as valid. Yet, his points would suggest that Earth would’ve already encountered extra-terrestrial life, which appears to be untrue.

Back to our topic, and the Fermi Paradox’s logic can be assigned to time travel. One of the most glaring criticisms of time travel is that no time travellers appear to be present in the world. Surely this means that at no point in the future that time travel will be possible? Otherwise, wouldn’t they be here now? Or are there certain rules in place – and will one day the technology be there, but such is the potential power of manipulating time, that no one dares uses it.

Applying this to the paradox promotes interesting results. Could time travel only be possible if time is warped in the correct way? Professor Stephen Hawking used this reasoning, related to how time travellers wouldn’t have infinite possibilities of when to visit, to suggest why the world wasn’t overran with time travellers. So based on this – we can’t actually disprove time travel. Despite there being evidence to suggest the contrary, time travel could still be possible.

Sound familiar? Something sounding impossible, yet there is no evidence to disprove the idea? We’re back to the Fermi Paradox once again. As you can see, when the paradox is applied to time travel, the same problems arise. Based on this argument, we can’t ever disprove the existence of time travel. It is a very intriguing subject, and something that will forever be debated.

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